"Here's Your Future" or "We're gonna move to Northern California." - Damian Burford: Freelance Writer/Podcaster from Denver, CO & Napa, Ca

“Here’s Your Future” or “We’re gonna move to Northern California.”

YOU GUYS!!!!

Claire and I are going to do the dang old, dang thing!

Ha! No we’re not getting married or having kids….
We are moving out of Colorado at the end of January!

I have been here for 20 years, and while I feel like Colorado is my home and I will one day die here; Claire has lived in Colorado all her life and wants a taste of something different! So we are going to go off and have an adventure. We have no clue where we will land, or awaits us, and it doesn’t matter as long as we have each other and our Dick… the tabby cat.

Claire has a passion for fine wine and has always wanted to live near the water. After talking her out of moving to Florida, we are currently looking towards Northern California. But we’re also looking at Burlington, Vermont after she had a dream about it a few weeks ago. So it feels like anywhere is on the table right now. I don’t really care where we go. I’ll go anywhere with her, as long as it is not Florida.

I have no doubt that one day we will be back in Colorado one day, but for now, we’re going to go see where the roads take us. Life is too short. I’m already 40 and maybe we’ll get 40 years together… So why not get out there and see what is happening in the world? Plus, for the last two years I have sat here on the couch and “worked on myself,” and worked on my growth, while she has been sitting here feeling stagnant. It’s time for me to be the supportive partner and it’s Claire’s time to grow now! You know, but with a nice ocean breeze in her hair.

We might land on our asses. It might be a disaster, but as long as we are doing it together… We’re going to have one hell of an adventure to tell you all about.

I could end it there, but before I go I want to thank the Graf brothers for taking a chance on me at Music City Hot Chicken – Denver. I was ready to do something stupid. I was ready to stay here, while Claire went off to California without me. We would try the long distance thing and see where our roads lead us.

But the brothers and owners of Music City, Sam and Jordan heard of my predicament and my own special version of “Should I stay or should I go now,” rambling through my head. I had been telling them that I wanted to stay here and build something with them here in Denver. I just wanted to be a part of something special. We sat down and they each told me it would be okay for me to leave and things would work out just fine.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning the fryers for the umpteenth time, “Here’s Your Future” by The Thermals, played unprompted in my head.

That week, Claire had been in California exploring and looking for her future home. There was no one home waiting for me and I was probably going to fall asleep on the couch again that night, after drinking too many beers. I was sad and lonely and in mourning for the life I thought I was going to have to lose. “Here’s Your Future.”

And I know it’s obvious to many of you, but remember I’m not that fast and on more than one occasion someone has asked me if I was on the spectrum….

I’m scraping the flour out of the bottom of the fryers, and then it dawns on me… It took me long enough to get there, but I figured it out. I was already building something special. I was building a life with this wonderful woman. I would be a fool to let her go on alone without me. I want to go on this journey with her.

I decided to commit to her and us.

Had the brothers not sat me down and told me everything would be alright if I left, I probably would have stayed and kept pushing through. I would have made a bonehead decision to stay here and potentially miss out on a great adventure with these women I love, oh so much.

Also, if I’m being completely honest, I always felt in over my head in my job at MCHC. I wasn’t cutting it, and didn’t know how to communicate what I needed to make things work. Cleaning those fryers, I thought a lot about Eric Stoltz and his time on Back To The Future.

Stoltz was originally cast in Back To The Future as Marty McFly, when Michael J Fox was not originally available. Fast forward seven weeks of filming and it just wasn’t working out. On paper Stoltz seemed like a great idea. It could have worked and it could have been great, but the chemistry just wasn’t there and during those seven weeks, Michael J Fox became available and the film would of course go on to become a classic.

I’m excited for the young man who is taking my spot. He’s got way more knowledge, experience and the back of house skills needed to take the restaurant to where it needs to go. He’s younger, hungrier and incredibly positive. He’s what that place needs and I can’t wait to watch it become a runaway success… much like Michael J Fox and Back to The Future.

So “Here’s You Future:” We’re going to go off and have some adventures. We are going to hunt for that simple, happy, healthy life. We’re going to do it together.

We’re not leaving until the end of January. I’m going to be with MCHC till mid-January and we will be leaving heading somewhere the first week of February.

We’re going to be looking for recommendations on where to go. She wants to work in wine and has a background in hospitality and accounts payable/book-keeping. I want to find something laid back and simple that allows me the time to sit back and enjoy our adventures together.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions. We have been looking at San Luis Obispo area super hard, but have heard that the housing crisis there is out of control. We’ve also been toying with Santa Rosa, Paso Robles and of course… Burlington, Vermont!?!

I’ll miss Colorado, but I really do think I’ll be back some day, but until then you guys have me until the end of January. We want to see as many of you as we can before we take off!

And to Claire, you annoy the hell out of me when you wake me up with the sun to hug and kiss me and tell me how much you love me, but I would rather that than the opposite. Thank you for your patience while it took me so damned long to figure all this shit out. Thank you for putting up with me and all my many faults, especially after the whole toilet fiasco a few weeks back….

I know I just used this quote a few weeks ago when you quit your job, but now I mean it even more: “Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.” – Dumbledore.

::Heart::

Damian Burford

Damian is the host of Mostly Harmless Podcast. Freelance writings have appeared in Vice, New Noise Magazine, Colorado Springs Independent, Denver Westword and more. Damian is currently bartending and working in music production in Napa, California. These are the adventures of his new life in Napa with his girlfriend Claire. Plus other adventures, writings, interviews and more!

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An ode to Alissa Rogers (1982 – 2016) Shreveport / Denver

November 12, 2022 No Comments

From Alissa: “sorry you are in that, its retardation not blooming. think about birth and also how much the sun hates us, and how fucking special it is to be able to feel a past. smell it. converse with it. have it. but to have the benefit of a future, its our internal health plan. chew on bits of ice as well, very uplifting and constructive-but socially annoying. i enjoy it during large group meetings, and dealing with the homeless. i miss our high school car rides.” -Alissa Rogers Today would have been my friend Alissa’s 40th birthday. I’m sitting in Hawaii looking at the water and my face is wet as I think about Alissa and my thoughts drift to my sister Brittany, gone now 13 years herself. I think about my friends who recently lost siblings. I think about how I wouldn’t be sitting here in fucking Hawaii had it not been for these folks who helped shape me into the pear shaped individual I am today. Here’s something I wrote when Alissa passed some years back. I miss her and think of her often. This was written in grief, and a first draft was posted. It desperately needs to be edited, but I just can’t stop crying when I read this to make the fixes…. So please forgive all the grammatical errors and such… —– Alissa Rogers was the first woman who let me touch her boobs. She was wearing these fake silicon pads you put into your bra and wanted me to feel them too see if they were real. Years later she told me that was the night she wanted to take my virginity, but I was too dumb to make a move. Alissa Rogers is the reason I am the man I am today. Alissa Rogers passed away today. I’m sitting here trying to figure out what to write about that wild, wonderful and obnoxious woman. I’ve been sitting here in silence for the last 15 minutes trying to find the right words when it dawns on me, had she been here she would have said something wildly inappropriate to break the tension. She would have made me and every one else laugh. She was fierce. She was hilarious. She was my friend. I went to Byrd High school in Shreveport, Louisiana with Alissa and I fucking hated her. She was everything I wasn’t. She was loud, obnoxious and loved attention. Of course I would fall in love with her. It happened in a dream. I had seen her out and about at places like the Karma Cup coffee house or St Vincent Mall, but I didn’t know her. Then she showed up in a dream of mine. More like invaded it. That was more her style. It wasn’t a sexual dream, it was just a dream where this larger than life girl played a part in. Somewhere a switch in my head turned my hatred into adoration. I was shy and awkward. I didn’t know how to approach her or become her friend, but fate intervened as during those late nights loitering at the Karma Cup, my best friend Michael Burnley ended up dating Alissa’s friend Jessica. As Michael and Jessica grew closer, so did Alissa and I. All these years later, I’m pretty sure the only reason we hung out in High School was because I had a car. She knew I loved her, and I would drive her anywhere. I did it gladly, just to be next to and a part of that thing that she was. She became my partner in Crime. I’d drive her to school everyday. I’d drive her around Shreveport. We’d drive to Dallas, Houston, Longview, or Tyler, Texas to see Punk Rock bands play. It was one of those days where I was driving Alissa around. We were going to go hang out with her new boyfriend Joe. I was jealous, but I was blindly in love and would do anything for her. It was on this day, my life changed for the better. We drove across the bridge into Bossier City, to a magical place called Books A Millions. It was big box book store with a gigantic parking lot, just blocks away from the mall. All the cool kids hung out in that parking lot of weekend nights. There at Books a Million, on that faithful day, We sat down at a patio table and I met Joe Upton and his friends. I remember sitting down at the table not knowing a single person at the table. I was shy. I was quiet. I was nervous and scared. Normally I would not have said a god damned thing, but something happened that day, because I reached out my hand to the person sitting on my right. I introduced myself to the guy sitting next to me. That person was Matt Crowson. Matt has become someone I’ll never be able to get rid of. Also sitting at that table were two other very important people in my adolescence, Joe & Ivy Woods It was through that group of Alissa, Matt, Joe, Ivy and later on Jason Gay; that I would find my courage. I would find my inspiration. I would find the beginnings of the path that has led me here. I had always wanted to start an underground fanzine, and guess what? Joe and Jason had one. I started interviewing bands for Joe and Jason’s KGB magazine. Alissa was a big part of pushing me to becoming more comfortable with myself. She used her powers of persuasiveness to help push me down the road I needed to be on. Fast forward a few years later and it was New Years Eve of 2001. Alissa had just returned to Shreveport after living in Denver for years. It was the first time in my entire life that it had snowed in Shreveport. I spent that evening hanging out with Alissa driving in the ice and

Chumped – Anika Pyle Interview on Teenage Retirement (New Noise Magazine Issue #13 – Nov 2014)

July 20, 2022 No Comments

Editor’s Note: This is the raw draft of the interview published by New Noise Magazine. This draft has not been seen by an editor. There may be errors. Chumped have created the soundtrack to your future up all night singalong drink-a-thons with your best friends. The band have crafted simple, elegant and most importantly catchy pop-punk songs about the ideals that we hold dear in our youth and yet will resonate with those of all ages: friendship, growing and loss. The band’s first two EP’s have garnered them extraordinary praise and an already intense following. Their full length debut, Teenage Retirement, is one of the most anticipated records of the year. We talk to vocalist Anika Pyle about relocating to New York City from small town Colorado, dealing with the praise, gigantic festivals and returning to The Fest 13. Teenage Retirement comes out this fall. How does it feel to have come from small town Colorado, all the way to one of the largest cities in the world and to have found success, and more importantly do you view your current praise as success? Wow. Success. How do you measure that? I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as a musical unit. If you had asked me 5 years ago or 2 years ago if I would be making a record and doing what I love with my best friends and sharing a bill with bands that literally changed my life I would have laughed in your face. I think I measure these small but amazing things we do as success. You guys came out of the gate and garnered a ton of praise for yourself titled debut. How does that early success effect the work you put into Teenage Retirement? Teenage Retirement was a succession of beer drinking and Cheetos eating that began with the Chumped EP…a natural progression if you will. No, I think we put out that EP, with full intention of pressing it ourselves and giving it to our moms and when people other than us even paid attention to it, it floored us and really inspired us to keep making more music. I think we were all truly shocked that anyone other than us gave a shit. We wrote a full length record because we weren’t done writing songs, we had more things to say and more music to make, but it felt good to have one under our belt. Plus, there are way more Cheetos to be eaten. It’s 2014 and we need to shed the idea of Male or Female songwriters and focus on just being songwriters, how do you work to continue to work to blend those lines? Do you have any interest in being a “role model?” and does that title frighten you? I’m a woman in a band. There are many others. Get over it. I’ve never really thought of myself as being important enough to be a role model and thinking that someone might look up to me is a little terrifying. However, I had a lot of people in my life who shaped who I am as a musician and a person. So I guess if I was that person for someone else I’d be humbled by it. You guys are a band that is right at home in my basement, yet you opened up Riot Fest Chicago. How was your experience being part of that gigantic machines?Riot Fest was maybe one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I think we definitely felt like a tiny blip in a giant universe but getting to see so many of my favorite bands while getting turnt with my best friends? Anytime. We were totally honored and would do it again in a heartbeat. With so many of your contemporaries playing more and more of these larger festivals, how much is playing Riot Fest Chicago a kind of “Ghost of Festivals to come” experience for you, and what do you learn playing these giant festivals?We were totally blown away when we got asked to play Riot Fest. There were zero expectations. It was definitely the biggest stage we’ve ever played to a big crowd of people we’ve never met before and I think we learned a lot about our comfort levels. It was a really different experience but honestly super inspiring. The biggest lessons we learned were “don’t be scared” “bring beer.” Our set time was so early that even the bars weren’t open. This October you are returning to your proving grounds of the Fest, but with a lot more time, experience and fans under your belt. When returning, I imagine the band being like a bunch of kids going back to school after summer vacation. What are you going to be most proud of to show or tell all your friends?We are incredibly proud of Teenage Retirement and we’re stoked to be able to play some new songs in Gainesville. Fest is a really magical weekend and I can’t wait to tell all my friends that despite the fact that they’re all idiots, we love them.

‘BottleRock 2026, Day 3: Celebrating good times in Napa’ – Daily Festival Log

June 4, 2026 No Comments

Day 3 of 3. Daily journal log in which Damian goes hunting for the “real Napa” at the massive, luxury themed music festival behemoth: BottleRock. Today’s theme is: Celebration.